Mumbai Indians seek consolation win

The Mumbai Indians led by Harbhajan Singh will play for pride and honour when they take on the Group B toppers, the Sydney Sixers in a dead rubber in Durban on Monday. The Sixers have won all their matches thus far and would want to keep the momentum, going into the semi-finals. The Mumbai Indians have nothing to lose and can play without any pressure and go on an all-out attack against their opponents.

Mumbai Indians

The defending champions haven't clicked as a unit. The batsmen have failed to build partnerships and none of them (except Karthink in the previous match) has scored a half-century in the tournament. Tendulkar has looked very scratchy up front while Dwayne Smith's cameos have been too short to make an impact. Rohit Sharma had hit a few 20s and 30s but failed to convert those starts into big scores.

The bowling hasn't looked threatening. Malinga has been taken apart in the death overs and apart from the 5-for he picked up in the previous match, he has looked a patch of the menacing and feared bowler he was. The rest of the bowlers have been poor and have neither been able to get the breakthroughs nor keep a check on the run-rate.

The MI have one final chance to prove their mettle in the tournament and go back with some good memories. Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan Singh need to perform and show the way to the others.

Sydney Sixers

The Sixers have been given rollicking starts by Watson and Lumb who have torn into the oppositon bowlers and made a huge impact up front. Brad Haddin has provided the impetus towards the end with some massive hitting whereas Moises Henriques has proven to be a more than useful all-rounder and has already played a blinder (a man of the match performance which included 3 wickets too) against the Chennai Super Kings at the Wanderers. Mitchell Starc has been the bowler of the tournament so far, picking up 9 wickets (2nd highest wicket-taker after Azhar Mahmood). Josh Hazlewood has been a revelation and provided great support to Starc up front, bowling an inmaculate line and length and blocking the runs from one end. The same reflects in his economy rate of 4.33. Watson and Henriques have also chipped in with crucial wickets.

Watch out for

Brad Haddin may open the innings in place of Watson who has gone back to Australia on national duty. He has shown us glimpses of his natural ability in all the 3 matches and would look for a big one to impress the selectors in hope of a comeback to the Australian set-up.

The Mumbai Indians would want to prove a point or two before bidding farewell to the tournament. They have the team to put one across the Sixers. The Sixers on the other hand would like to end on a clean slate and carry the momentum to the knockout stage. A lot of individual talent would be on display from both the teams thus inspite of being a dead rubber, one could be in for a humdinger of a contest.